CHICAGO — Former Illinois Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. failed Tuesday in his bid to return to Congress after resigning more than a decade ago amid a federal corruption investigation.
Cook County Commissioner Donna Miller defeated him and several other candidates to win the Democratic primary for Illinois’s 2nd District, a seat currently held by Representative Robin Kelly, who went on to run for the Senate.
Jackson’s comeback bid turned the race into a high-profile contest, with the former representative relying on his deep name recognition. But Jackson — who resigned in 2012 and served prison time after pleading guilty to wire and mail fraud for misusing $750,000 in campaign funds — was unable to successfully reframe his past as a redemption story.
Meanwhile, Miller consolidated support in key parts of the district and benefited from spending by a group associated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which invested more than $4 million in advertisements promoting his campaign. The contest attracted national attention partly because the group, Affordable Chicago Now, gave Miller’s campaign substantial airplay in the Chicago media market and funded mail pieces highlighting his record.
This spending helped raise Miller’s profile, so much so that a separate political action committee, Leading the Future PAC, which is funded by OpenAI stakeholders, spent more than $1 million to promote Jackson after she signaled support for the industry with op-eds and ads.
Miller focused his campaign on his work on public health, public safety, and budget oversight. She also highlighted her longstanding ties to Democratic women’s organizations as vice chair of the Illinois Democratic Women, past chair of the Democratic Women of the South Suburbs, and past board chair of Planned Parenthood of Illinois and its political action committee.
She made a concerted effort not to attack her opponents and said she was “the only candidate in the race” to do so.
Other notable names in the race included state senators Robert Peters and Willie Preston.
The 2nd District, which stretches from Chicago’s South Side to southern suburbs and rural counties, is heavily Democratic and Miller is expected to win easily in November.
